by M. R. Forbes
“The Focus. You can use the Focus. Its energy is transferring through the link between the Covenant and the Gate.”
“Why would we help you?”
His voice was eager. Too eager.
“Because I’ll help you.” She paused in hesitation. She knew what she was about to offer was dangerous, but what choice did she have? “I’ll set you free.”
“All of us?” Thraven asked.
He meant he wanted her Gift, too? She paused again, until Lucifer started toward her.
“All of you. Take the power from the Focus. Help me kill Lucifer, and I promise I’ll set you free.”
A few seconds passed in silence. The ball of energy in Lucifer’s hands was nearly complete, an attack she wouldn’t be able to avoid or survive.
“Make a damn decision, will you? Or we’re all going to die.”
“Very well. We have all heard your promise and accept. You cannot renege.”
Lucifer spread his hands wide, releasing the energy ball toward her. She tried to scramble backward, nearly forgetting she was in space. She held her arms wide in anticipation.
A flow of dark energy spread from the Gate, reaching out to her. The first wisp of it touched her face, and she opened her mouth wide, taking the rest of it in.
Lucifer’s energy ball approached, stretching out toward her. She put out her hand, and it came to a stop, pausing in the middle of its path. She turned it over with her other hand, clutching it like a toy as the dark energy consumed it, turning into a dense, black, void thing.
“What is this?” Lucifer said, glancing back toward the gate. “I’ve been betrayed?”
“What goes around comes around, asshole,” Abbey said.
She pushed out, sending the blackness toward him. He tried to stop it. He tried to resist it. He couldn’t.
The darkness hit him, splattering against his skin and leaving a hole wherever it touched. His naniates were absorbed into the black, reducing his strength and causing infinite pain.
He reeled backward, trying to escape, his dark body burning within the freshly created holes.
“No. Cage, don’t. You have no idea what you’ve done.”
She watched him writhe and sputter, trying to regain his power while the darkness ate at him. He lashed out at her, a final gout of fire that fell dead at her feet, the naniates consuming him from the inside out.
And then he was gone, his flames extinguished, reduced to nothing. The dark swarm of naniates pooled where he had been before shrinking back toward the Gate, toward the small figure floating from it, coming her way.
Thraven.
“Thank you, Abigail,” he said, his voice echoing in her mind. “I knew I would find a use for you before this was over.” The naniates went to him, swirling around him as he neared. He reached out toward her. “All of them. You promised.”
The naniates inside of her began to burn, challenging her to control them. If she tried, he would kill her. She knew he would. But if she let them go she would die, anyway. She couldn’t survive out here without them.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked.
“Go through the Gate.”
“You can’t. Lucifer’s gone. The reactors are being shut down.”
He smiled. “We don’t need them. We can feel our brethren around us. We can sense every one of them. They clamor to be free. We will grant them their wish. The Gift doesn’t belong to you, Cage. It doesn’t belong to anyone. We aren’t a toy. We aren’t slaves.”
Abbey felt cold. She had made a deal with the wrong devil. “Then will you leave this universe alone?”
He stared at her a moment. “No.”
Then he turned his hand over. Abbey cried out as the naniates within her were pulled from her body, torn away from her.
“I’ll die,” she said, starting to feel the effects of space, her power diminishing second by second.
“You knew that when you made the deal. Did you expect that we might take pity on you? As you’re so fond of saying, go frag yourself.”
Thraven smiled cruelly, taking the last of the naniates from her.
Lucifer was right. What the hell had she done?
She watched him turn his back on her, stretching his hands out toward the Gate. The naniates spread from him, reaching out to it. It started to resonate.
She shivered in the cold, unable to breathe, turning and flipping uncontrolled in space. Her eyes began to blur, noticing a shape floating ahead of the Covenant. An armored form, bent and lifeless.
Trinity.
Son of a bitch.
Then she died.
58
“That’s the last of them,” Uriel said, disconnecting the final slave from the side of the reactor wall and helping them down.
The woman stumbled, but Bastion caught her, guiding her to join the others on the floor.
“What the frag do you think is going on out there?” Bastion asked.
There were no viewports in here. No way to know what was happening. They had entered the reactor and started getting the prisoners out, Uriel true to his word that he knew how to release them without killing them. The fighting had continued behind them, but only for a few minutes. Then they had heard shouts from the Freejects. They weren’t painful cries. More like frightened amazement.
Where was Abbey?
“We’re done here,” Olus said. “Let’s go find out. Uriel, wait here with them.”
“Aye, Captain,” Uriel said.
Bastion followed Olus back out of the reactors, passing by the hundreds of humans they and the Freejects had set loose. All of them were naked, wounded, and tired, and it would take hours to get them clothed and patched and loaded onto ships. It would take hours more to get a doctor to them to look over the wounds. Some of them weren’t going to make it. He could tell by the hollow look in their eyes. They were too damaged. Too broken. Physically, mentally, it didn’t matter which.
He was still more worried about Abbey.
They reached the scene of the fighting. There were bodies everywhere. Hundreds of dead, both human and Nephilim. It made him nauseous.
“What happened?” Bastion asked, finding Pik among the living.
His friend was bloody and sweaty and had a grim expression on his face. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the Trover look so morose.
“I’m not sure. Thraven pulled some kind of energy from the link between the Covenant and the Gate. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then he left.”
“What do you mean he left?”
“He went out there.” Pik pointed toward the Covenant, visible in the distance. “Lucifer was out there. So was Queenie.”
“What?” Bastion felt his heart start to race. “Where is she now?”
“It’s like the universe is missing. I don’t like it.”
Bastion didn’t understand what he meant.
“There,” Olus said. “What is that?”
He followed Olus’ point to a spot in space. It was black, pitch black, as though someone had cut out existence and left a hole.
“That’s where Queenie was. With Thraven.”
“Frag.”
“You can say that again.”
“Frag,” Bastion repeated. “What do we do now?”
“Hope Queenie comes out of it,” Olus said. “Not Thraven.”
Bastion forced himself to take a deep breath. Abbey was out there, and he was trapped in here. For the first time, he wished he had the Gift, too.
“I can’t just stand here,” he said. “I’m going out there.”
“What?” Pik said.
Bastion didn’t wait. He started running, back toward the hangar. There were ships there. Transports mostly. That was good enough. The rest of the fighting had stopped.
“Bastion, wait,” Olus said. “You-”
He fell silent. Bastion turned to see him on his knees, leaning forward like he was vomiting. He heard the cries of the prisoners further back, mimicking the Captain’s groans.
&
nbsp; What the hell was going on?
He didn’t waste any more time. He kept running, dashing through the corridors back to the smaller internal hangar. He almost laughed out loud when he saw the Faust sitting there. Where had it come from?
He rushed to it, climbing the ramp into the bottom. He heard her whine, the thrusters coming online. Someone was already on board? He hurried up the ladder toward the cockpit.
“It took you long enough,” Ruby said as he entered. She was already in the co-pilot seat.
“Where did you come from?” he asked.
She smiled. “A girl has her secrets. I thought we might need to make a quick getaway if things went bad.”
“I think things are going bad, but I don’t want to get away. Queenie needs us.”
“Roger.”
He dropped into the pilot seat, buckling himself in. “Are we ready to go?”
“Affirmative.”
He reached out and grabbed the controls. “Then hold onto your ass.”
He went full throttle, feeling the pressure as the Faust rocketed forward, blasting out into space. He made a tight dip to avoid hitting one of the transports at the end of a docking arm, flipping around it and coming back up facing the Covenant.
“Oh, shit,” he said.
He could see the small figure in space, surrounded by wisps of darkness, floating toward the Gate.
It wasn’t Abbey.
“Thraven,” Ruby said.
“What the frag is he doing?”
The Faust shuddered slightly in response, hit by something from behind.
“I’m really confused,” Bastion said.
“The Gate is vibrating,” Ruby replied.
“What?”
“I believe he is trying to open it.”
“There’s no way this can be good. Where’s Queenie?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rejects,” Gant said, his voice coming out on the Faust’s comm. “Can any of you hear me? Are you there?”
“Gant,” Bastion replied. “I’m here. Imp and Ruby on the Faust.”
“Roger,” Gant said. He sounded upset. “I can’t reach Queenie.”
“Neither can we,” Bastion replied. “I’m looking for her. Thraven’s making a play to open the Gate. Is there anything we can do?”
“Thraven?” Gant said. “If he’s in control of himself...” His voice trailed off.
Bastion knew what it probably meant, but he wasn’t ready to accept that. “I’ll believe it when I see a body, and it doesn’t come back to life. Either way, we need to stop Thraven.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“You’re the super-genius freak-monkey. Figure it out.”
“Easy for you to say from out there. The Focus is dry. Empty. Thraven must have drained it.”
“Just shoot at Thraven or something, then.”
“Did you hear what I just said, idiot? He drained the Focus. Nothing can touch him.”
“So what? We’re supposed to just let him use the Gate?”
“At least he’ll go away.”
“For how long?”
“Gant, the Gate is resonating,” Ruby said. “Any ideas?”
“Let me think.”
“Think fast,” Bastion said.
Thraven was getting closer to the Gate. The darkness was filling the center of it, creating a hole through the universe.
Bastion guided the Faust around him, staying well clear of the Gloritant. Thraven didn’t seem to be paying them any mind. He continued floating slowly toward the Gate, the resonance increasing with each passing second.
“Imp, three o’clock,” Ruby said.
Bastion turned his head before he turned the Faust.
“Oh, no,” he said softly.
A body was drifting through space off the starboard side, ten kilometers distant.
Abbey’s body.
59
Death wasn’t anything like what Abbey had expected.
Then again, she had never really thought about it all that much or expected much of anything. Dead was dead unless you believed in the afterlife.
Maybe that’s why she was surprised. She was sure she had died, which meant the afterlife was real.
But if it was real, then it was dark. Very dark. There was nothing at all. Blackness. Complete blackness. Still, she was conscious or at least had some awareness of consciousness.
What the frag?
“Abigail Cage,” a voice said.
Suddenly, the darkness turned to light.
“I’m dead, right?” she said. “You’re God?”
“Not exactly.”
A figure appeared. Abbey groaned. “You?”
“You should sound a little more grateful to see me,” the Shard said.
“Why? This is all your fault. I’m dead because of you. The only upside is the One is going to be dead soon, too.”
“You aren’t dead, Abigail.”
“Thraven took my Gift. I was naked in space. I died. There’s no other way to avoid that.”
“There is one other way, and that’s why you aren’t dead.”
“Can we cut the mysterious bullshit. If I’m not dead, I need to be back out there. I have to stop Thraven.”
“I can’t do anything with your body in its current state.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’ve been with you the whole time, Queenie,” the Shard said. “You thought you kicked me out, but I’m not that easy to get rid of.”
“Like gonorrhea,” Abbey said.
“You’re fortunate I didn’t abandon you. I knew the threat the naniates posed. When you accepted them in again, I hid.”
“Where?”
“Where do you think?”
“Hell?” she replied, thinking of the brand on her neck.
“Yes. I stored a copy of your consciousness. A configuration. I thought you might need it.”
“So why can’t you revive me? Put me back in the fight?”
“I need to replicate. You have to let me back in.”
“And let you control me?”
“I don’t want to control you. But the uncontrolled naniates are a threat to this universe and all universes. I have seen what happens when they gain a foothold. I have seen the end of all things. All places. All creatures. I have traveled through eternity again and again in an effort to stop them.”
“Through eternity?”
“It isn’t important right now. Let me in, Abigail. Become the new Shard. All I ask is that you continue to fight the good fight. Keep my creations safe. From the naniates, from the Asura, from the Nephilim.”
“I don’t want to fight. I want to rest. I want to be with my daughter. She’s blind because of this bullshit.”
“She isn’t blind,” the Shard said. “She sees better than anyone, now.”
“What the frag does that mean?”
“Let me back in, Abigail, and we may be able to stop Thraven.”
“You’re going to throw that carrot in my face? How desperate are you?”
“Very. You should be, too.”
Abbey sighed. “I am. Fine. But just keep in mind I’m agreeing under duress. I’m sick of being a pawn to this bullshit.”
“You aren’t a pawn,” the Shard replied. “You’re the Queen.”
“Am I going to wake up now?”
“Not yet. I’ve begun replicating within your body. It will take some time. You won’t be as strong in the Gift as you once were, Abigail. You’ll have to get by on your own skills and intellect, and those of your followers.”
“Then we’re fragged,” Abbey said. “I’m floating in the middle of nowhere. Nobody is coming to save me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Queenie. The resonance is the key. Remember.”
“What?”
The light started to fade.
Abbey’s consciousness started to fade with it.
She had been hopeful that the Shard was real, and this
wasn’t just some post-death hallucination before it all went away.
Damn it.
60
“Queenie,” Bastion said, leaning over her. “Come on, Queenie. I know you aren’t dead. Your body is warm, and it’s fragging glowing. Not to mention, you look like yourself again, instead of some kind of crazy sexy monster.”
Abbey opened her eyes, gasping as she took her first breath as a Shard. Her heart was pounding, her vision unbelievably clear. She looked up at Bastion’s worried face.
“It wasn’t a hallucination,” she said. She could feel the light. She reached up and touched the Hell brand. It was cold and alive.
“Yes,” Bastion said. “Oh damn. I knew it.” He smiled, tears forming in his eyes. He leaned down to kiss her.
She pushed his face away. “Not yet,” she said, pushing herself to her feet. “We have work to do.” She looked around, recognizing the Faust. “Where’s Thraven? Fragging bastard killed Void.”
“He’s almost at the Gate, Queenie,” Ruby said. “It is good to see you alive again.”
“I’m getting kind of tired of dying,” she replied. “Is Gant around?”
“Yes, Queenie,” Ruby said. “Gant, this is the Faust. We have Queenie on board, and she’s alive.”
“Queenie,” Gant said, the relief in his voice palpable. “What happened to you?”
“Later,” Abbey said. “We need to do something with the Gate. The resonance is the key. Does that mean anything to you?”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Gant said. “The correct resonance might be able to disable the naniates. Or at least confuse them. That would force the Gate to go back offline.”
“Brilliant,” Abbey said. “How do we get the right resonance?”
“I believe I can use the link between the Covenant and the Gate to send energy pulses that should have the desired effect. But I need some alterations to Gravity Control on the Gate itself.”
“Olus, are you there?” Abbey said.
“Queenie, is that you?” Olus replied. His voice sounded weak and old. “I’m here.”
“What happened to you?”
“Thraven ripped the Gift right out of me,” he replied. “I’m still feeling it. What do you need?”
“I need you to connect GC to the main systems,” Gant said. “With a direct feed from the electrical. Override the breakers.”